All posts tagged ‘zelda’

27 years ago today Legend of Zelda was first released in Japan, a game which really needs no introduction.

Legend of Zeldawasn’t released in the US until August 22, 1987. That Christmas, my sister and I got a Nintendo and we spend hours playing it. While the rest of my family liked playing Super Mario Bros. better, I couldn’t get enough of Legend of Zelda. I loved the story as, and even though the graphics weren’t great, my imagination transported me to the middle of the story. It was the first adventure/role-playing game I ever played, an introduction to my favorite type of video game.

Even though I could only get about halfway through the game, I would play it for hours on end when I was a kid. I finally did finish it a few years ago, though (with the help of the internet). My husband likes to tease me that it took me 20 years to beat Legend of Zelda. Legend of Zelda was one of the first classic games I purchased on my Wii and I still play it sometimes. While I have enjoyed the other Zelda games that have been released since, the first one holds a special place in my heart!

There are a lot of deals to sift through today–who has the time? So we’ve done a little sorting for you to make your Cyber Monday shopping go a little more smoothly. Find another great deal? Leave it for everyone in the comments!

Comixology is have a 99 cent sale on Avengers, 50% of select comics from IDW, and up to 80% off collections.

Amazon’s lightning deals in books include The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury and The Complete Vader: Star Wars. Check to see when the books you want will be available so you know when to buy. Kindle books are on sale as well, many for around $2.

If you’re ready to start your kids on Skylanders, Wal-Mart has glow-in-the-dark starter packs for $39 for Wii, PS3, and Xbox. If you missed all the Xbox specials on Black Friday, they also have a bundle for $159 with Skylanders Starter Kit and Exclusive Gill Grunt Character and free shipping.

The Steam sale is still on, but harder to gift, so consider it a present to yourself. Today’s deals includ Sonic Generations and Batman: Arkham City. Yesterday’s still available deals include Borderlands 2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

DVD

Seasons 1, 2, and 4 of Heroes on Amazon are only $8.99 each. (Season 3 is inexplicably twice as much.) The search turns up a lot, though, so to make it easy, just use these links: season one, season two, season four.

Amazon also has some great DVD lightning deals throughout the day, but like with the books, you’ll have to check to see what’s available and make sure you’re ready to click when they’re ready to sell. The best deals go within seconds. Today’s deals include Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Brave.

Other general geekery

ThinkGeek is offering free shipping with no minimum order in the US or $10 off $60 anywhere outside the US (including Middle Earth, according to their newsletter).

Our favorite fictional worlds are often fantastically full of fantasy flavors–some better than others. It’s hard to resist creating Earthly versions of them, so why fight it? Here are fourteen foods from fiction and ways to make them yourself, along with three you can find without much invention.

Lembas

Of the myriad Middle Earth munchies, lembas seems to be the most popular to recreate. (Maybe because “cram” is a less appealing name, especially when eating it is described as “a chewing exercise.”) Lembas, on the other hand, has a description similar to hard tack, a cracker sort of thing we don’t see much of in the US. Here’s a lembas recipe based on what we know about it. At the end of the experiment, you will be baked andthentherewillbe cake.

Fruity Oaty Bars

I wouldn’t fault you for printing Fruity Oaty Bar wrappers and putting them on your Clif bars. That seems reasonable, and less likely to have any ill effects from consuming Blue Sun products. But if you want to make your own, they tell us right there in the name that they likely contain something resembling fruit, something resembling oats, and are bar-shaped. How convenient! Even more convenient–a recipe using oats and the fruit puree of your choice. I invited your best friend, the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn’t come because you murdered him.

Cake

Cake and grief counseling will be available at the conclusion of the post. This is your fault. I’m going to kill you. And all the cake is gone. You don’t even care, do you?

Gagh

Leave it to the Klingons to name a delicacy with the sound a human is likely to make when eating it. Short of actually eating live worms (which I really don’t recommend, despite enjoying How to Eat Fried Worms), you can recreate the look with Jell-o Blood Worms. If your tongue is brave, try this recipe made with ginger and cocoa. And if you’re really yearning for the sensation, I think you could get close with casu marzu.Momentum, a function of mass and velocity, is conserved between portals. In layman’s terms, speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.

Spoo

Really? Really? You want to eat spoo? Babylon 5 fans are so weird. (I love you anyway.) How about some gnocchi spoo? It’s not worms, but we covered that particular taste with the gagh. Did you know you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science Self Esteem Fund for Girls? It’s true!

Food cubes

Dear Future,

Nutrition is important, but food is supposed to look good as well as taste good. Please remember this.

Love,
The present

I’m all about space travel, but you won’t see me spending long on any planet that thinks food cubes are a good idea. Claudia Black, who played Aeryn Sun on Farscape, says they used “hawanalis.” A poster on the RPF suggests that what she really meant was haw flake candy.That thing you burnt up isn’t important to me. It’s the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit; it makes shoes for orphans. Nice job breaking it, hero.

Popplers

The problems with popplers are plentiful, and not limited to MEAT protests. There’s the lack of transportation to Omicron Persei 8, the difficulty of eating animated food, and the fact that I can’t stop thinking about my fond 80s feelings for Popples. Searching for imitation recipes of this Futurama universe delicacy will yield you everything from seafood bites to hush puppies to chicken nuggets, so choose your favorite deep-fried, ball-shaped treat and sing along. You can pick ‘em, you can lick ‘em, you can chew ‘em, you can stick ‘em. If you promise not to sue us, you can shove one up your nose!” The Enrichment Center is required to remind you that the Weighted Companion Cube cannot talk. In the event that it does, ignore its advice.

Ice planets

Your food is problematic? Let us solve your problem! Make your own Firefly ice planets to torture your kids all afternoon. Anyway, this cake is great. It’s so delicious and moist. Look at me still talking when there’s science to do.

For many geek moms and dads, hearing the The Legend of Zelda theme music immediately evokes memories of childhood and our first forays into the world of Hyrule. The Legend of Zelda reached a milestone of 25 years in 2011. To commemorate the anniversary with fans across the world, a symphony concert series featuring orchestral arrangements from the Zelda games is currently touring the United States.

We noticed immediately that we were surrounded by kindred spirits. Cosplayers were out in number, with a small army of Links and Zeldas excitedly pointing at the Triforce banners hanging in the hall. Other attendees sported T-shirts, Triforce tattoos, and even Minish Caps. We knew we were in good company.

We noticed the lack of a concert program at the entrance of the hall, but we discovered that the enchanting conductor, Eímear Noone, acted as the mistress of ceremonies for the evening. As she introduced the Symphony of the Goddesses, she said with a sincere smile, “This is not just a concert. This is a celebration of The Legend of Zelda.”

When the music began and the theme filled the hall, it brought tears to my eyes. It was plain to see that the other members of the audience felt the same way, swept up in the nostalgia and memories.

Above the orchestra, a screen accompanied the music, showing scenes from Zelda games from the original to the most recent, Skyward Sword. I was torn between watching the musicians and seeing scenes from some of my favorite games play out overhead.

Photo: Kelly Knox

The symphony includes selections from Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Majora’s Mask, and the obvious crowd favorite, A Link to the Past. Smiles lit the faces of both the Zelda fans in the audience, all captivated by the dazzling music. It was a magical night celebrating The Legend of Zelda.

If you’re a Legend of Zelda fan, I highly recommend attending The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses if it makes a stop in your city. Your heart truly will soar.

Some parents have their kids in compulsory violin lessons as toddlers. Others wait for the muse to strike. Whichever camp you fall into, you want the money you spend on instruments and music lessons to have the maximum impact.

· See which instrument excites your child. It’s never a good idea to just pick an instrument and tell the child they are going to learn it. Taking your child to a concert is a great way to introduce a number of instruments at once. If they like a particular one, take them to a music store or someplace they can touch and try it. Show them instruments until you find one that sparks their interest.

· Find your child’s favorite style. Don’t be disappointed if classical violin or piano is not your child’s favorite. They can get the same benefits from learning various different styles of music.

· Make music part of your home life. If a mom has been singing to her child since infancy, the child will have a more developed sense of pitch and timing. Music is like a language. If you are really immersed in it, constantly listening to it, you are going to pick up the language much more quickly than by studying it as a separate part of your life.

· Make the timing right. When a child can begin learning an instrument depends on the instrument and the child. For violin, most students start between 3 and 5, before they have school and other activities vying for their attention. Depending on methodology, 4 or 5 is a good time to start learning piano or guitar. Guitar, violin and cello come in fractional small sizes suitable for little ones. Students need to be a bit older for most wind instruments — about 7 for flute, about 9 for clarinet. The exception is the ocarina (of Legend of Zelda fame), which can be started as young as 3.

· Be involved with your child. Younger children won’t know how to practice without some parental guidance. Kids often want to play through a song – if they get stuck at a certain spot, their inclination is to go back to the beginning. Parents can help by encouraging them to work on the difficult parts separately, and then put them back into the song.

An international effort to create a more realistic Link amigurumi was successfully posted over at Craftzine this week. Previous attempts have been, in this crafter’s opinion, too complicated for amigurumi, or looked nothing like the character. Apart from the Hylian shield. this looks to be both simple and realistic. Stephanie Lau, who designed the shield and sword, has graciously posted the pattern on her blog.

In other amigurumi goodness, the delightful Wolfdreamer has produced a pattern for one of the penguins from Madagascar. It’s a nice basic shape, I can easily see the eyebrow-line being adapted into an Admiral Ackbar pattern at some point.

Vast amounts of time and skill are invested in video game design annually. Everything you see and hear, and every move you make in a game was first drawn, composed and spelled-out in code by someone else for our enjoyment.

When gamers geek out about the games we play, there’s usually a lot of talk about the visuals and sometimes a bit of chatter about the story, but a game’s audio is often taken for granted during casual critique. It’s true that good sound direction tends to be subtle, but it adds such an important emotional dimension to gameplay that playing video games with the sound muted can be a very different experience.

Individual sound effects, like footfalls and jangling coin-sounds, are the straightforward stuff of game audio, but what about the music? In the movies, music crescendos before kisses and screams “WOO-HOO!” during car chases for a reason. Savvy game-makers perform the same sort of emotional manipulation to make gameplay more immersive, but there’s one element the makers can’t control: The players.

As it turns out, the internet is full of multi-talented people who play video games and musical instruments with equal zeal. What happens when one worthy pastime collides with another? Filk songs for gamers!

When you think about it, composing parodies, tributes, and covers of video game music is just another way for musical gamers to replay their favorite games. In other words, VG filk music is a type of meta-game.

Non-gamers may miss some of the inside jokes, but the songs in the following playlist are enjoyable even out of their original contexts. Listen, and get your meta-game on!